Dealing with leftovers: cheesy potato casserole bread

The Babe found a lovely recipe for dealing with excess mashed potatoes. I realize as I write this that this is a hard concept to fathom, the idea of too many mashed potatoes, even as leftovers, but I suppose that it is theoretically possible.

Given the premise that one might conceivably want to devote leftover mashed potatoes to something other than a vehicle for gravy and butter, the Babe found a lovely recipe for Cheesy Potato Casserole Bread, which uses leftover mashed potatoes that have, for some reason, been dubbed as "excess" potatoes.

I'm going to reproduce the recipe here for convenience, but all credit goes to Anna P, who posted the recipe on food.com. She says she got it from a flyer, so who knows who did this originally?

Cheesy Potato Casserole Bread
By Anna P. on May 20, 2003

Prep Time: 1 hr
Total Time: 1 3/4 hrs
Serves: 6
Yield: 1 Loaf

Ingredients
1 (1/4 ounce) envelope active dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
1/3 cup vegetable shortening, at room temperature
1 large egg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup mashed potatoes, at room temperature
1/2 cup shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Grease a deep round or oval 2-quart casserole and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the milk and let dissolve.
3. Add the shortening, egg, salt, pepper, and 1 cup of the flour and beat till smooth, about 2 minutes Stir in the remaining 2 cups flour, the potatoes, and cheddar till well blended, scrape the dough in the prepared casserole, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm area till doubled in bulk, about 40 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
5. Sprinkle the Parmesan evenly, over the top of the dough and bake till golden brown, about 45 minutes.
6. Transfer the bread to a wire rack to cool, then cut into slices.

Things worth noting

You'll put the initial ingredients in the bowl as directed, blend it vigorously with a beater, then add the rest of the ingredients and most of the flour save the last cup and beat that, then add the last cup and use a stiff spoon or large fork to mix everything... but you don't knead it! It's all mixed in the bowl and then you pour it right into the greased 2qt cooking dish, cover with saran wrap, and let it rise right there. When it's risen, you don't punch it down, but just slip it into the oven. The eggs provide the glue that you'd normally create by kneading and building up the gluten. So it's a cross between a quick bread and a yeast bread, but it doesn't leave that slight baking soda flavor in the back of the mouth. And it's very tasty!

Dealing with leftovers: cheesy potato casserole bread

1847 sourdough starter

I was looking around for a sourdough starter a few weeks ago. As I just mentioned, it's a harvesting and prepping for the Dark Time feeling. I was thinking that I really needed to get a sourdough starter. Even though The Babe doesn't eat sourdough willingly, both Susan the Wonderchild and I do.

I looked online for recipes. I know you can create your own, but I was after something with a little provenance that was really good and sour. And lo! I found it in Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter. This is a culture from a sourdough starter that traces all the way back to the Oregon Trail in 1847. It was in Carl's family for the last 150-some years.

Carl was a generous guy who gave sourdough starter to any and all during his life and his friends have been continuing this habit now that he's gone. You can get enough sourdough starter culture to get your own sourdough starter going for the cost of an SASE. If you're thinking you aren't going to use it often enough, here's information on how to dry or freeze sourdough culture.

I'm still on the primary growth phase of the culture; I'll be feeding it with more flour and dried potatoes tomorrow. But it's growing nicely at this point and I've a container ready for it.

1847 sourdough starter

Baking, brewing, and the God

It's almost Samhain, the time of year when the God dies and goes into the Underworld. The harvest is all in and we're going into the Dark Time between the years until the God is born again at Yule.

The thing is that, as part of this, there's a strong sense of preparation this year. I've been wanting to can, to bake, even to brew beer, something I've not done for over a decade. I sent off for a sourdough starter I'll tell you about shortly. They're making me feel better and safer, but I've been wondering why.

These things are all harvest related but I also recognize that for me, this is Samhain nesting behavior. The Goddess is life and rebirth, to be sure, so the yeast cells are Hers. Putting them to work is the God's side of things. During a vision quest decades ago, I thought that the Goddess is all things, and the God is the understanding of all things. So where the Goddess is plants, the God is agriculture. Where the Goddess is nature, the God is science. And where the Goddess is grains and yeasts, the God is baking and brewing.

So every time I do baking or brewing, the smell of yeast reminds me of the God and how the God will understand the Goddess a little better each time.

Baking, brewing, and the God

Cherpumple pie cake

This article on how to make a cherpumple monster pie cake (the bakery equivalent of a Turducken) is fun. Because, you know, a diabetic needs to have yet another way to put unnecessary sugar into his life.

Cherpumple pie cake